Monday, April 20, 2009

Follow this link to an editorial in today's Boston Globe by Donald Kimelman, "A Hybrid Path for Saving Newspapers." Having been appalled by recent threats to shut down the Globe, I have contemplated a future in a large American city without newspapers. (There is a second newspaper in Boston, the Boston Herald, and it's a pretty good paper, actually. It's on the financial ropes, too, though.)

As Benjamin Franklin recognized, newspapers of some sort are important in a democracy, to keep the government honest, and to keep the citizens informed. Some kind of news outlet that is independent enough that it can't be intimidated by government pressure, and can't be bought or swayed by dollars is essential, I believe. And it needs to have enough financial backing of its own that it can underwrite some investigative reporting. The British press baron, the late Lord Northcliff once declared that, "News is what somebody somewhere wants to suppress; anything else is just advertising."